After Rose left the Hospital Wing, she felt as light as a feather. The mere thought of being Scorpius Malfoy’s friend was enthralling to her. It was something that every female in Hogwarts would kill to have. As much as she wanted to be more than a friend to him, she was still pleased by the fact that he now considered himself her friend. Yes, that was much pleasurable to be than an arch enemy, which she considerably was for the past four years. Just a few minutes ago she was planning on how to capture Albus and strangle him to death for leaving her in an awkward situation. But now, she was stuck between wanting to thank him or kill him.

Instead of heading to the Great Hall for dinner, Rose made her way up to the Gryffindor Tower towards the portrait of the Fat Lady.

“Goodness girl! What exactly are you so blissful about?” The Fat Lady questioned, eyeing Rose’s never faltering smile.

Rose gave out an uncharacteristic girlish giggle and ignored the Fat Lady’s question, giving her the password instead. When Rose entered the Common Room, she heard the Fat Lady muttering something along the lines of “children these days” and “never know the meaning of respect” to herself.

As Rose walked further inside, she heard sounds of sobbing from somewhere in the far corner. Turning her head, she spotted a mane of wavy brown hair. She drew closer to see a girl sitting there weeping into her knees. It took a few seconds for her to realise that they were Melissa’s sobs. Her smile vanished immediately.

Her friend didn’t answer and continued sobbing without lifting her head up from her knees. Rose started to think of what must have upset Melissa and then it clicked her. James.

“What did James do this time?” Rose asked bitterly, purely annoyed by James and his ego.

The mention of James made Melissa sob even harder, and Rose quickly put an arm around her shoulder. Melissa stayed that way for five minutes until she lifted up her head, revealing her red and swollen eyes. “I...I broke up with him, Rose...I j-just couldn’t take any more.”

“I couldn’t take it anymore. This morning I woke up to see him sitting on the couch across Finnigan and Conway and they were flirting with him and-”

Rose shook her head in a swift manner. “Melissa, I cannot believe you broke up with him just for that. It’s not his fault. They probably just found him sitting there and went to join him,”

“It’s not just that, last night he was giving them far too much attention and he was literally laughing along with them this morning!” Melissa’s eyes flashed with anger.

“Oh, Mother of Merlin. Melissa, did you know that James has fancied you for ages, and if you didn’t know by now, he only went out with Finnigan to make you jealous,” Rose tried to reason.

Melissa still didn’t look convinced, and remained staring at the ceiling. They both remained silent until Rose asked curiously, “How did you break up, anyway?”

Melissa glanced at her before looking back at the ceiling. She gave out a long sigh. “It happened just before dinner, before you came. I tried to ignore him the whole day but he didn’t seem to be getting the message that I was pissed at him. Again, I saw him talking to Conway. He noticed my shocked expression and asked me what’s wrong... and then I just sort of blurted out that I wanted to...to end it. Like that. Without even thinking. He didn’t believe me at first, he thought I was joking. He thinks everything’s a joke. But then I screeched that I was sick of him and I wanted us to break up,” she rubbed her eyes, becoming emotional again, “he got really angry after that. He even started screaming at me so that everyone in the common room could hear us. He threw the snitch he was holding on the ground so hard and then just said “Fine, if that’s what you bloody want” coldly and stormed out of the common room.”

Rose was shocked by this piece of information. It was very rare for James to be angry. The only other time that Rose had seen James as angry as the way Melissa just described it, was the time in their fourth year summer holidays when her Uncle Harry had threatened James that he wouldn’t let him play Quidditch at school and that he was abandoned to use the broomstick unless he improved his behaviour. But other than that, he was never that angry. Rose confirmed that Melissa breaking up with him must have really hurt him.

“Melissa,” Rose finally spoke, “you have to get back with him immediately,”

Melissa looked taken aback for a while before shaking her head furiously, “No, Rose. I’m not going to until he shows me that he really does like me. After his constant flirting with other girls the past few days, I’m not so sure if he does anymore.”

“He went off at you after that, Mel. Trust me, James rarely gets angry. What you did must have really hurt him.”

Melissa huffed, “Well, maybe that would give him a taste of his own medicine. He made me feel that way for that past few days. Now let him deal with the consequences.”

Rose opened her mouth then shut it. She knew that Melissa had a point. “I guess you’ve got a point there,” she voiced out.

“Yes. Well, I think I’m going to go to bed now, I can’t stay up any longer,” Melissa wiped her eyes and stood up. “You can go to supper Rose, you must be hungry...wait a minute, where were you the past hour? I haven’t seen you since?”

“Err,” Rose stuttered. She had no intention in telling Melissa that she had been visiting Scorpius. After all, Melissa and Jasmine were under the impression that she was over him, and they had no idea that Zabini was the one causing all the mayhem. “I was with Albus...in the library. He needed me to help him with his Transfiguration.”

Melissa shook her head. “I’ve lost my appetite and I feel really tired. Good night.” She repeated and disappeared up the staircase.

*

The next morning Rose waited for Melissa to come out of the bathroom so that they could go together to the Great Hall. She didn’t want to leave her alone especially after what happened between her and James the previous day. Jasmine had already left. In fact, when they had both woken up she was gone. They didn’t know why she was out so early.

“Well you took your time,” Rose commented as Melissa finally exited the bathroom.

She shrugged. “My eyes were really red and I didn’t want to go out like this. Besides, I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction that I was actually hurt by what happened.”

“Isn’t that a bit harsh though, Mel?” Rose told her as descended down that stairs. Melissa didn’t answer her because a soon as they were down they saw James standing there in front of the Girls’ dorms, as though he had been waiting for them to come down.

He seemed to be hesitating with himself. “Er, Hi Rose, Melissa.” he looked doubtfully at Melissa, as though expecting her to slap him any minute.

“Hi James,” Rose said coolly. Melissa was staring at James with her mouth half open. She then came back to her senses and huffed before storming away.

“What the bloody hell is wrong with her!?” James asked unexpectedly, his brow furrowing.

“Why don’t you ask yourself that question?” Rose replied with a roll of her eyes. She quickly walked after Melissa, not wanting to spill out too much to James.

“He thinks I’ll forgive him, just like that!” Melissa said as Rose fell into step with her. “Well, he needs to think again.”

Rose remained silent, not wanting to make the issue bigger than it actually was. They finally arrived in the Great Hall without further ado. Rose looked at the Slytherin to table to see if Scorpius was there, and to her surprise he was sitting there next to Derik Jones, with a handy band tied around his arm. Hadn’t he told her that he would be out of the Hospital Wing in three days? He looked somewhat tense, from what she saw from afar. He caught her eyes and he smiled.

She felt her insides melt and quickly turned around from his gaze. It was just too much for her.

“What are you blushing about?” Melissa snapped, as they sat in their usually spots.

“I’m not blushing,” Rose quickly took an omelette sandwich and began to eat, avoiding Melissa’s eyes. Jasmine, after a few minutes, appeared beside them.

“Where were you?” Melissa snapped again, looking sharply at Jasmine.

“I...I was in the Owlery. Had to send my mother a letter,” Jasmine stuttered. “So, anything happened lately?” she asked, her eyes on Melissa.

Melissa slammed her fork on the table. “Anything happened lately? She mimicked. “Of course, you were busy snogging Al to bother with what anyone else had been up to.”

Jasmine ignored Melissa’s comment. “No, I mean did anything happen this morning?” she glanced at Rose for an answer.

“What do you think happened!?” Melissa asked wit amusement. “Rose was busy comforting me whilst you were out in the ‘owlery’.”

Jasmine sighed irritably. She stood up from her place and walked off.

“Mel, I think you’re acting a bit over the top,”

“Oh yes, go defend Jasmine, as you usually do.” She retorted.

“Look I’m going to Transfiguration now, otherwise I’ll be late.” Rose quickly got up from her seat and walked out of the Great Hall, with a sudden feeling that someone was watching her.

*

“You told James to apologise to Mel, didn’t you?” Rose asked jasmine during History of Magic. Melissa was ignoring both of them and sitting far away. “You weren’t in the Owlery were you?”

Jasmine glanced at Rose and reluctantly nodded. “I figured that it might bring Mel back to her senses. But apparently not. James looked so depressed, and when I told him to try to apologise, he agreed.”

“Well, at least you tried,” Rose said, eying Melissa, who was glaring at nothing in particular. She was acting moody the whole day.

The bell finally rang and everyone sighed in relief, glad to be out of the lesson from Binns’ drones. “What do we have next?” Rose asked. She was losing track of what they had that day.

“Potions, I think,” Jasmine answered. Rose felt herself turning red again. She did promise that she’d be partnered with Scorpius again. But what was Melissa going to think?

What Rose couldn’t understand was why Scorpius wanted her back as a partner in the first place. ‘To borrow your brain?’ a voice in her mind suggested. But Rose ignored it. It was probably because Violet Finnigan was distracting him from his work, she reasoned.

They finally reached the Potions classroom and Rose stopped in her track. She didn’t know what to do. Should she go sit beside Scorpius or wait for Melissa on their current table? She glanced around the room to see Scorpius already there. He was wearing an agitated expression for an unknown reason.

Jasmine noticed Rose’s discomfort. “Why aren’t you moving?” she questioned. Before Rose could answer more students came piling in the room, and she noticed Violet quickly take her post next to Scorpius, who was still wearing that agitated expression he had on earlier. In fact, he didn’t even notice Violet sit beside him.

“It’s nothing,” Rose finally answered and went to sit in her usual table. Melissa finally arrived in the classroom. She ignored Rose as she sat down, dropping her bag on the floor. Before Rose good speak to her, Aplomb burst into the classroom the same way he always had, with his usual jolly self.

Rose wasn’t listening to half of what Aplomb was saying; instead she was eying Scorpius from the corner of her eyes. She noticed that there was something wrong with him. He too, looked like he wasn’t paying attention, like he was in a completely different world.

After the class had ended, Rose was the first to leave. She didn’t speak to Melissa or even wait for Jasmine or Albus. She just wanted to be alone. Unfortunately for her, that wasn’t going to happen because as soon as she left, someone fell into step with her.

“Hi,” she was surprised to hear Scorpius’ voice from beside her. In fact, she didn’t think that he’d even remembered that he called her a friend now.

“Hello,” Rose replied reluctantly. She glanced at him. He looked moody, almost as much as Melissa.

They remained silent for a while and Rose wondered why he was still walking beside her. She started to feel very nervous. “Are you okay? It seems like something is bothering you.” Rose blurted out involuntary.

He looked at her and chuckled. “It does? Nah, I’m fine. It’s just that my father came visiting me this morning. He was pissed at me because I got injured and ‘didn’t catch the snitch’, according to him.”

He shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, but that’s how my dad is. I can’t change that.” He paused. “Why didn’t you come sit next to me in Potions?” he asked abruptly, glancing at Rose from the corner of his eye.

“Oh, about that,” Rose started nervously. She didn’t even think he’d realise that. “Err, Violet was sitting next to you. I couldn’t just tell her to move.”

“But you were there before her,” he pointed out. Again, Rose was surprised that he’d noticed that too.

“Ah, yeah. But you see I didn’t want to leave my friend alone...” Rose told him. “We have a few problems going on...and... you know.”

“Oh,” was all he said. He then asked, “What sort of problems?”

Rose was surprised at the pile of questions he was asking her. In fact, this was the first time he asked her this much. Not that they ever talked before, she thought. He noticed the look in her face and quickly said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. If you don’t want to tell me you don’t have-”

To her shock, Scorpius stopped in his tracks and looked at her with an expression she didn’t quite understand. “You-you have a boyfriend?” he demanded.

Rose was rather surprised at his question. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Um no, no I don’t. It’s just problems with Melissa.” Of course he’d find it strange for her to have a boyfriend. She didn’t blame him to think so. She, however, felt more than hurt by it. But this news wasn’t exactly new to her.

“No it’s fine,” Rose said with a smile she hoped looked genuine. “I understand, it’s funny thinking I have a boyfriend.”

Again, Scorpius stopped. “That’s not what I meant!” he said rather loudly, his eyes wide. “I swear that’s not what I meant.” He repeated.

Rose laughed. “It’s okay, you don’t have to pretend that it wasn’t surprising.” He looked like he was going to say something but she quickly stopped him. “Look, I’ve got to go now. It was nice talking to you.”

She walked away from him as fast as she could before she could do something stupid.

A/N: Right. I know, I know. I haven't updated in ages...*waits for tomatoes to be thrown at her*. What can I say, life and school have been hectic. Now I have a break so I updated. This chapter is longer than first intended, so I hope you consider it a treat! *smiles hopefully*. Also, I'd just like thank everyone who has reviewed and favourited this story! Love you all!
Anyway, a review would be nice right now.